January 2007
To read the letter from Sr Susan Connelly published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 January 2007, which criticises the Australian Government’s policy towards East Timor in 1976 following the release of official documents from that year, click here.
November 2006
The Framework for Security Cooperation 2006, better known as the Australia-Indonesia security treaty, was signed on Lombok on 13 November 2006. For a comment on the treaty by Dr Clinton Fernandes in New Matilda, click here. The treaty is expected to be subject to parliamentary review early in 2007 before being formally ratified by the Australian Government. This review should include provision for public submissions to JSCOT (the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties). ACTJET will make a submission.
With the easing of the crisis in Dili, Chega! (“Enough!”), the final report of the CAVR, is being disseminated in the districts of East Timor. ACTJET organised public launches of Chega! around Australia in November to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre (12 November, 1991) and the anniversary of Fretilin’s declaration of independence for East Timor (28 November 1975). There were a number of other events around the launches, which were attended by former CAVR Chair Aniceto Guterres Lopes, former Commissioner Isabel Guterres, Post-CAVR Secretariat Senior Advisor Pat Walsh, and the Timor-Leste Ambassador and/or Consul General to Australia.
The launch dates were as follows:
Sydney, Sunday 12 November
Melbourne, Tuesday 14 November
Ballarat, Wednesday 15 November
Adelaide, Thursday 16 November
Perth, Friday 17 November
Canberra (Parliament House), 28 November
To see the launch flyer, click here. To read about the reasons behind the formal launches of Chega! in Australia, please click here. To read the speech by former CAVR Commissioner Isabel Guterres at the launch in Parliament House, Canberra on 28 November 2006, click here. To read Senator Stott-Despoja’s speech in tabling Chega! in the Australian Senate on 29 November 2006, click here and go to pages 94-95.
October 2006
To read a letter from the Australia East Timor Friendship Association (SA) to all members of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade regarding Chega!, click here
August 2006
July 2006
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released his long-awaited report on justice and reconciliation for Timor-Leste. It can be accessed at www.unotil.org. The response from ETAN and TAPOL is at http://etan.org/news/2006/08unjust.htm.
